EU states should recognise Guaido as Venezuela's leader, EU lawmakers to say

The European Parliament will call on EU governments to recognise Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, according to a draft resolution set to be agreed on Thursday, after a downgrade of his status by the bloc earlier this month.

The European Parliament will call on EU governments to recognise Juan Guaido as Venezuela's interim president, according to a draft resolution set to be agreed on Thursday, after a downgrade of his status by the bloc earlier this month. The EU's 27 states said on Jan. 6 they can no longer legally recognise Guaido as the country's legitimate head of state after he lost his position as head of parliament, despite the EU not recognising legislative elections in December.

The resolution, which will be voted on at 1530 GMT, is not legally binding but carries political weight. The European Parliament "calls on ... the member states to unequivocally recognise the constitutional continuation of the legitimate National Assembly of Venezuela elected in 2015 and the legitimate interim President of Venezuela Juan Guaido", it says.

Guaido is still seen by the United States and Britain as Venezuela's rightful leader following the disputed 2018 re-election of President Nicolas Maduro. EU diplomats have stressed that the bloc does not recognise Maduro as president. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration will continue to recognise Guaido as president, Anthony Blinken, Biden's nominee for secretary of state, said on Tuesday.

The European Parliament is also set to call for further sanctions against the Maduro government, on top of those already imposed, to decry what it views as rights violations and the rupture of democracy. Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that the bloc still considered Guaido to be opposition leader and a critical figure in the effort to bring about new presidential elections in Venezuela.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)